| Summary: | An intellectual property system was established in China in 1985. Since then, the merits and drawbacks of the system have become apparent in both theory and practice. Despite the fact that a great deal has been written about the Chinese intellectual property system, systematic studies of the subject are still scarce, especially from a corporate management perspective. The current empirical research has two aims. First, it is to evaluate the problems UK and US multinational enterprises have encountered as a consequence of their intellectual property flows into different enterprises in China. Second, it is to suggest methods of avoiding future problems. The overall rationale for the research is that it fills a void in our understanding of intellectual property rights in China, particularly from a corporate perspective. It is important to draw upon a variety of discipline approaches when exploring these issues, which are influenced by the political context, the legislative framework, economic factors and the existence of cultural differences. In order to set context, the thesis reports on the existing literature and undertakes a fairly extensive examination of trends from secondary data sources. The core of the research, however, is a combination of an empirical survey and case studies. In total, 183 companies from the UK, US and China have been targeted using postal questionnaires, from which 51 valid responses were received. The study also utilises the results of a further 30 telephone interviews, 18 personal interviews, and over 100 email exchanges for research purposes. In addition, the thesis reports on three representative cases. The analysis is mainly qualitative, with some basic statistical analysis of the resulting data. Simple tabulations, pictographs and photographs are adopted to present the empirical results, based on a problem-cause -solution model. The results indicate that the majority of the companies interviewed had encountered difficulties, mainly relating to government organisations and Chinese companies or partners. Half of them had still not resolved their problems. The results also demonstrate that the two major barriers to intellectual property flows are judicial enforcement and technology control. In relation to solutions, the research shows that consultation; including commercial settlement, has been the most viable means of resolving problems, and that judicial enforcement has proved unreliable. The conclusions contain eleven suggestions for future practice amongst companies involved with intellectual property flows.
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